I stepped out the front door at around 6:15am. It was dark and cold....but I was so excited to be doing this again. It had been a full month since I got my behind out the door to run outside pre-dawn. First it was the snow, then it was the ice that never melted, then it was the wind (and all of this is underscored with a big dose of wimpyness!)

The plan was an easy paced run, but who am I kidding...when it's 20 degrees outside you run like hell until you warm up! I kept Mile 1 slow enough to maintain an average HR of 149 bpm my pace was 9:35. I managed to slow myself down a little bit and ended up the 4.5 mile run in a 9:49/mile pace with an average HR of 156.

The weather is warming up here - in the mid-40s today! - and I'll be in SoCal next week, so I should be able to keep my easy runs at a bit of an easier pace over the next 10 days.

On this morning's run I listened to some early Joe Jackson. I had my iPod in the car last night and decided to spin the wheel and listen to an album I hadn't heard in a while. I ended up on Look Sharp! Nice. I love how his early stuff is so simple and did not go overboard in the recording production. I can just imagine him and his band jamming in the studio together to make the songs - not laying down tracks to be pieced together later. This morning I was still in that kind of mood so I put I'm The Man and Look Sharp! in the iPod shuffle.

Ahhhh. Good tunes, fresh air and the stress release of a morning run. Today will be a much better day!